Non-Review: “Song of the Dragon,” Tracy Hickman

Review book courtesy of Penguin Group

The elves of the Rhonas Empire have carved a path of conquest throughout the civilized lands, enslaving humans, chimera, manticores, goblins, and every other race they encounter. … But legends tell of a time when humans and the other slave races were free. There are tales of a hero who will return one day to lead them in an uprising against their masters. That hero, so the stories say, will be a human named Drakis.

But Drakis Sha’Timuran, a human warrior-slave of House Timuran, gives no credence to these legends. He fights for the glory of his House and his elven masters along with the other members of his Cohort. But as they embark on the final stage of a campaign to bring down the last dwarf king, Drakis finds himself troubled by a song–a melody that coils itself around his mind and conjures disturbing visions of dark wings, claws, iridescent scales, and fire. … Along with all the other slaves, Drakis suddenly recalls the truth of his enslavement, the terrible cruelty of his masters, and their deceit. But if everything he knows about his world and his life is a lie, what is the truth?

Song of the Dragon is book one of the Annals of Drakis. I’m not entirely sure what to say about it. I managed to get to page 379. You’d think at that point there’d be no reason not to finish it, but I put it down and just couldn’t bring myself to pick it up again. If I take a step back I can say that there are some interesting plot bits in it. The characters are very one-note, however. The means by which the elves keep their slaves pacified seems unnecessarily complex and prone to problems. And the events of the story just weren’t that lively or interesting. I had no emotional connection to the book whatsoever.

I wanted to want to finish it; I much prefer to do full reviews rather than non-reviews, especially after I’ve put that much time into a book. But it says a lot that I couldn’t scrape together enough interest to read those final 70 or so pages–and I’m having difficulty finding much of anything to talk about with regards to it. I felt very little passion or emotion in the words.